On June 23,2006, Baptist historian Walter Shurden, speaking before the Religious Liberty Council, warned that never before in American history has the principal of religious freedom been more threatened.
He told of hearing the great preacher, Dr. Samuel Proctor, a grandson of slaves and a Baptist theologian, remind his listeners of how Hitler came into power. He reminded them that Germany was not a hick backcountry. It was a theological, intellectual, and cultural center of Europe. It was the theological home of Luther, the cultural home of many musicians and writers. It was the home to Bertolt Brecht, Bruno Walter, Erich Maria Remarque, Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Werner von Braun.
Shurden noted that Nazism was able to gain a stronghold in Germany because the church largely allowed it.
In fact the church began to merge nationalistic and racist teachings with Christianity, forming a movement called the German Christians.
The passion and emphasis were placed more on the German part than the Christian part.
They were Germans who happened to be Christians, rather than Christians who happened to be Germans, and they proudly flung the swastika across Christ's altar. They were people like us. We need not demonize them; they were people like us.
He said that he does not believe that a Nazi-like totalitarianism is imminent in the US (I'm afraid I might disagree with him here. I think we are on the edge of the slippery slope.) but added that we should never allow ourselves to grow complacent about our freedoms.
I am suggesting . . . that there are American Christians for whom the adjective is more important than the noun. I am suggesting that some Christian churches in our country have become political temples and that some clergy have embraced willingly the title of `patriot pastors.' I am suggesting that theocrats have an eye on the machinery of the national and state governments, and they make no apology for it.
Shurden went on to list three reasons why it can happen here:
religious right-wing militancy
sincere religious ideologues
ignorance of our history,
As an example of the first reason Shurden relates the story about Patrick Henry College in Purcell, Virginia, whose founder, Michael Farris, directs his greatest efforts toward home-schooled children. He wants to turn them into
foot soldiers to gain political power in order to subsume everything . . . under their right-wing interpretation of the Christian faith.
For the second reason stated he relates that in 2004, 42 out of 100 US Senators were given a scorecard of 100% by the Christian Coalition.
The religious idealogues who are rampant in this country are deadly serious in their zeal. They mean business.
As an example of the unprecedented ignorance of US history Shurden cited a Knight Foundation study that conducted a survey of a large number of US high school students as to their views of civil liberties. One in three students believed that the First Amendment guarantees too much liberty to citizens. Half of them believed that newspapers should seek government approval before they print stories. Read those last two sentences again. This is America's future here!
Sinclair Lewis wrote:
When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
We are seeing the beginnings of this NOW!
We complain about the fear-mongering that this administration so loves, but this is a clear and present danger. This should strike terror in our hearts!